
The United Kingdom's online regulators/censors are at it again, attempting to punish American websites for publishing information that's perfectly legal in the United States but violates the law in the U.K.'s increasingly constricted environment for speech. This time, Ofcom—the U.K.'s telecom regulatory body—slapped a U.S.-based forum where some discussions are sympathetic to suicide with a £950,000 ($1,273,000) fine, despite its efforts to block British users. The censorship agency is unlikely to ever see a penny of the penalty, but its efforts to control speech well beyond its jurisdiction threaten to result in a walled online environment for Britons.